Egg shells

My next door neighbour told me to keep my egg shells as they act as a good form of calcium for your plants. Has anyone else heard this before??

:confused:

 

I have heard something similar.
They used to say that you should put your egg shells on your compost heap to help neutralise the acid.
Never found out if its true or not, I would think they contain more grit than anything else.
But I've never kept chickens so I dont know what that grit they feed them contains.

 

they are good, but if you already have alkaline soil, you may be over-doing the alkaline content. Where I am, it's a useful addition. Do you know what your soil is? Actually, I guess you do - as it'll be imported compost, won't it?

 

I would imagine that egg shells should be allright, as there is a lot of calcium in them, same as in the in the bones for example.

 

All our shells go into the compost bins. We make sure they are well crushed first otherwise we find very obvious big bits of egg shell on the garden when we use the compost.

 

And make sure no whole ones sneak in because when you empty the bin,a year old egg is not a pleasant thing to smell when you break it open :eek: :eek:

 

And that's no yolk :D

 

While you are chatting about compost bins, i have just ordered a compost bin for my kitchen bits, its not huge but i was wondering how do you get one started??

 

There are two main options.

1. Treat it like a normal compost heap and throw in all your kitchen waste (less meat). But remember to include things like cardboard and paper towel in fair quantity otherwise you'll end up with a soggy smelly mess. All the cardboard from your loo rolls should go in plus any non-glossy packaging. You could also add a compost accelerator which you can buy at your local GC or add the odd layer of soil which will contain the bacteria to help break down the contents.

2. And the best option by far. Introduce worms to the bin. The difference they make to speed of the breakdown of the contents is phenominal and the compost produced is also higher in nutrients. You need tiger or brandling worms for this and you'll find suppliers on the web or could try your local fishing tackle supplier.

[ 23. April 2006, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

there's a really good thread about this from some time back - try the search facility at the top for it!

 

There ain't nothing like a worm ( provided it ain't an antipodean worm). They work all day and get no pay.

[ 23. April 2006, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

Can you just chuck brandling worms into an ordinary compost heap/bin, or do you have to buy one of those expensive bins that are normally sold for them?

I can see that they distribute them more effectively but can't you just layer them in an ordinary heap to speed things up a bit?

 

why should brandling worms get luxury homes?? Let's treat them as normal!

 

aside: the grit fed to chickens is oystershell and flint, the shell provides calcium but the main reason is to make the digestive system work in a natural way,